Social Media

Facebook 'Compliments' Pages Promote Positivity on College Campuses

Last fall, a new Internet craze hit college campuses: Facebook 'Compliments' pages.

Four students at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, started a Facebook profile called Queens U Compliments. They encouraged fellow classmates to anonymously submit compliments about members of the university, which were then posted to the profile to be viewed publicly.

"We thought it would be an awesome project to spread happiness and positivity to the Queen's community," says Jessica Jonker, one of the site's cofounders.

It found enormous success immediately. Jonker remembers logging in to the account a few days after creating it and finding more than 200 notifications and friend requests. "I think that was the moment when we actually thought, ‘Wow, we might actually be on to something here!’"

By the end of the fall semester, the profile had already almost reached its 5,000-friend limit, and more than 100 submissions were rolling in every day.

Facebook was the go-to platform for this project — first, because it was the easiest way to reach the majority of their target audience, and second, because it allowed them to remain anonymous as the moderators.

"It has been really fun to see and hear firsthand how much QUC has become an integral part of the Queen’s community," Jonker says. "The page has proven how much of an impact one single compliment can have on a person’s life."

"We launched right before Thanksgiving and the holidays, when everyone is typically in the spirit of being kind and showing gratitude toward one another," Janover says. "We also felt that with final exams around the corner, a positive forum would be a good way to make someone’s day during a particularly stressful time."

"I thought it was such an amazing idea to spread love throughout the community, and I couldn’t wait to start," she says.

Stony Brook University student Daniel Ahmadizadeh also started his school's Page last December. Within the first three hours of the site's existence, it received more than 300 likes.

"Stony Brook Compliments gained an incredible amount of traction," he says. "It was just mind-boggling how receptive people were to this platform."

Ahmadizadeh created the page in hopes of bringing the Stony Brook community together. He felt that there needed to be something to unify the nearly 40,000 students and faculty at the school.

"It's hard to find unity within such a large group of diverse people," he says. "The Compliments Page really became the bridge connecting all of us."

Ahmadizadeh encouraged students to send in a photo of the person they were complimenting along with the text, in order to "put a face to each name."

In late December, somebody posted a compliment about Zamir Miah, the man who works the overnight shift at the Dunkin Donuts right off Stony Brook's campus.

It read: “The Bengali man working at Dunkin’ Donuts on 25A is by far the nicest and most generous man I’ve ever purchased something from. Every time I order something, he automatically upgrades it or throws in a few extra donuts or muffins and never charges extra for them. He’s always working alone at night but is still extremely friendly. I’ve always wanted to approach him or give him an anonymous note, and I wish there was a way that multiple Stony Brook students can get together and give back to him — because I’m sure he does this for everyone as well, and does it with a smile on his face.”

The post sparked a conversation about how much Zamir had done for the members of Stony Brook, and prompted nearly 60 students to come together to surprise him with an "Epic Thank You." They brought him handwritten thank you cards, a $400 tip, which was doubled by Dunkin Donuts to become $800, and a big banner that read "Stony Brook Runs on Zamir."

"We took the kindness and community-building off of just the social media platform," Ahmadizadeh says. "It started on Facebook, but it didn't stay there."

This kind of "cyber-graciousness" took colleges across the country and internationally by storm. There are more than 130 student-run college 'Compliments' Pages and profiles on Facebook, all abounding with kind recognition of people's personalities and talents.

"Social media has the ability to transform essentially everything," Ahmadizadeh says. "It can bring crowds together to achieve one same mission: to empower people to spread kindness."

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